The OFFICIAL meat smoking thread

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Splurged and bought a $45 pork butt from whole foods and thought it was probably going to be a waste, but I really don't think it was. Tough call putting $4.99/lb at whole foods against $0.99/lb at Kroger though it's usually $2-$3. Probably go Kroger in the previous scenario, WF in the later. But, no doubt the meat was better at whole foods and there's a direct impact on the final product. Here are some pics.







I had to trim maybe, maybe half a pound off a 9 lb butt. It cooked in 8 hours without ever raising the heat above 250 (def takes longer with Kroger meat). Wrapped it for an hour or so at the end when it stalled at 170ish (about the same as kroger meat). The whole thing was just tender (probably the same, but to an extra degree here).

I cook for my kids, wife, and her mom the vast majority of the time. None of them are judging kcbs events, right. So for them to notice a difference is really a big deal because I use the same [expletive] all the time and it turns out pretty much the same way all the time. But, both the wife and MIL both thought it was the best pb I've ever done. Maybe it's just fathers day and they blow smoke up my ass but I tend to agree. It's a small but noticeable difference using the whole food meat I think.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

And when I say Whole Food, I don't refer specifically to them but the entire mindset of well treated pigs that roll around and eat each others [expletive] and eat dirt and what not.

[33anda3rd]

Kroger Pros:
Cheaper

Humanely Raised Meat At Whole Foods Pros:
Exponentially better quality
Less hormones and other garbage in your food that's not supposed to be in your food

Humanely Raised Meat From Your Local Farmer/Butcher Pros:
All the pros of the Whole Foods, plus...
Even better quality
Contributing to a small local business that re-spends your money in your community
Contributing to a cow/pig/chicken/lamb living a far better life than he would in a huge factory livestock farm
Not contributing to factory livestock agriculture that is absolutely awful on the environment

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Agree on some of that stuff, have some questions/toughts on other parts. But, not tonight.

Just wanted to talk about another meal tonight that we made with the leftovers from the pulled pork. Obviously, there's a lot of meat when cooking pork butts. I always take some to work and feed the folks there which works out pretty well. Still going to do that, but tonight we made some nachos with the leftover meat.

[SHOW]

It was extremely good. Probably not as good as just a straight pulled pork sandwich....maybe. But the way the onions, bbq and corn go together and are offset by the spice of the jalapeno and smoke of the pulled pork, all with the salt on the chips mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

It is super easy to make. Just throw a bunch of chips down, top them with a little piece of pork, then add some thinly sliced red onions, diced jalapenos, cheese, and some bbq sauce (about a drop on each chip though it could handle more). Repeat with a 2nd layer. All in all it takes about half a pound of pork, 1 jalapeno, 1-2 shaved cobs of corn, half a small red onion and 6 oz or so of cheese with 2 tbsp or so of bbq sauce and half a bag of chips.

bake at 400 for about 8 minutes or until the onions and jalapenos are properly cooked and the previously cold pork is warm.

This is surprisingly good.

[lukethedrifter]

Most bbq nachos are gross with too much sweet bbq sauce. Those look just right.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

There's a smokehouse around here that serves them, but like you said they have way too much sauce and it overpowers the nachos. These turned out perfect. Looked online and there are a whole lot of recipes for this which is kind of surprising. Didn't know they were so popular.

Regardless, it was good.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Regarding the butchers and where to buy meat....

It's a massively confusing topic for me at least.

On the one hand, I agree with everything 33 says regarding quality, keeping money local, etc. But, there's also the cost and availability issues that throw a wrench in there. There's a local butcher, Hillcrest Artisan Meats, that has sausages and bacon readily available and some other stuff some of the time. Their prices are probably twice what Whole Foods is which is probably twice or more of what Kroger is. Take ribs for instance, last time I was in there, it was about $10/lb. Do a couple racks and that's going to run upwards of $80. And, they might not have them and they're on the other side of town so it's an extra half an hour to an hour to get them. A minor inconvenience, but still. And, that's way more convenient, assuming they have what you're looking for, than trying to buy something on the internet which probably isn't even available that day or possibly even that week. A lot of stuff I've seen online is futher packaged such that you buy a package that includes 5 chickens, 10 lbs of ground beef, 10 steaks, 2 racks of ribs, a butt, and a loin.....or whatever. Basically, you need a deep freeze to store it all. So, yeah, the farm to table and local food clubs are great in theory but a pita for guys like me that just want what they want when they want it (now).

Whole Foods is a better medium for me. The humanely raised meat (I guess we'll just take their word for it) that is higher quality at a bit of a markup. But, [expletive], most importantly it's available. They're knowledgeable butchers that will get you exactly what you want. Hell, when I was talking to the guy, he asked how many pounds of the butt I wanted. I was like....the whole thing? How much does it weigh? So he weighed it and it was ~10 lbs. I said I'd take it all if he would just take the fat cap off. Which he did. But, yeah, if I wanted a 6.5 lb pork butt, they'd have cut it off and just sold the 6.5 lbs and done...whatever with the rest of it.

After reading a book about a ranch that focuses on raising livestock humanely, I've become more interested in the topic....but still don't have much ill will towards the supermarket meats that have served me just fine for the better part of my life.

[Freed Roger]

Beast Bbq has finally opened in the Grove. I'm excited.

[tlombard]

Beast Bbq has finally opened in the Grove. I'm excited.

Yeah, I need to stop by there in the next week or so. I had completely forgotten about them since it had been so long since they announced they were opening there but then a couple of months ago I was talking to a friend who mentioned that they would be finally opening sometime soon. She doesn't care since she's a vegetarian but her husband is an architect and was involved in the project to renovate the space. She said that apparently they went well above what they could actually afford to redo the space at the time and literally ran out of money for awhile and that's been the cause of the delay.

[Freed Roger]

Beast Bbq has finally opened in the Grove. I'm excited.

Yeah, I need to stop by there in the next week or so. I had completely forgotten about them since it had been so long since they announced they were opening there but then a couple of months ago I was talking to a friend who mentioned that they would be finally opening sometime soon. She doesn't care since she's a vegetarian but her husband is an architect and was involved in the project to renovate the space. She said that apparently they went well above what they could actually afford to redo the space at the time and literally ran out of money for awhile and that's been the cause of the delay.

Yep, I better go soon too. It's a civic duty. Saving cool old buildings - one brisket sandwich and draft beer at a time.